Netflix’s Spellbound ending explained: What happens to Ellsmere and Solon in the end?

The animated adventure fantasy film Spellbound was released on November 22, 2024, on Netflix. Directed by Vicky Jenson from a screenplay by Julia Miranda, the story of the film was developed by Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin.

The film’s voice cast includes names like Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Tituss Burgess, Nathan Lane, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman. The film tells the story of how Princess Ellian (Zegler), the princess of the magical realm called Lumbria, breaks the spell that turned her parents (Bardem and Kidman) into heinous monsters.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Queen Ellsmere and King Solon were turned into monsters because of their constant bickering, leading them to lose their inner goodness. By the end of the film, the cursed spell is broken thanks to their daughter’s intervention, and they decide to live separately as human beings once again.

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Spellbound ending shows Ellsmere and Solon back to their human selves

Queen Ellsmere and King Solon (Image via Netflix)

As the film opens, it becomes evident that something is wrong with the King and Queen of the realm, and the ones closest to them are trying their best to hide the situation. However, it eventually becomes public knowledge that the couple was turned into monsters around a year back.

People come to know how their former rulers are kept hidden deep inside the castle and how their consciousness has dwindled to such an extent that they are little more than animals now. Princess Ellian, however, still takes care of them. She asks for the Oracles’ help in order to get her parents to their old selves.

The Oracles of the Sun and Moon instruct the princess to take her parents to the Pool of Light situated at the top of the highest mountain in Lumbria. Much of Spellbound is about this perilous journey.

By the end of the film, as the three characters approach the Pool of Light, Ellsmere and Solon have to confront their unflattering past. Once they are ready to come to terms with the fact that their past actions were not pleasant, they express their regret and arrive at the solution that they should live separately.

This upsets Ellian, and Eternal Darkness starts taking hold of her, just as it once did with her parents. However, her parents have fully regained their mental faculties now, and together they save their daughter with their love. In turn, they get back their former human forms.

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Why were Ellsmere and Solon turned into monsters?

Stills from the film (Image via Netflix)

Throughout the film, there are hints that Ellsmere and Solon, even in their monster forms, are not on good terms with each other. They constantly fight and have to be kept separate from each other. Even when they are on the journey toward the Pool of Light, they keep provoking each other.

Gradually, it becomes clear that they were turned into monsters because even though initially they were a loving couple, they slowly morphed into individuals with irreconcilable differences. As a result, they would constantly fight with and hurt each other.

As the story of Spellbound moves forward, it is revealed that Ellsmere and Solon eventually became too bitter, and their inner light was taken away. It is due to this reason that Eternal Darkness consumed them and turned them into monsters.

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What happens to Ellian at the end of Spellbound?

Stills from the film (Image via Netflix)

When the film begins, Ellian is shown as a child who is desperate to feel the love of her parents once more. Even though she scolds them for scaring the Oracles away from the castle, she later leaves cakes for them as a gesture of peace.

Further, even though the trusted ministers of the kingdom give up on Ellsmere and Solon, who have been monsters for a year, Ellian tries her best to cure her mother and father. At the end of the film, she becomes upset when she realizes that her parents will live separately from now on.

However, the bittersweet ending of Spellbound settles for a plausible compromise: Ellsmere and Solon do indeed live in separate castles, but they both love their daughter, who shares her time between her two parents’ houses.

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Spellbound is currently streaming on Netflix.